Alicia found James sitting at home with a beer in one hand. His legs were raised up in front of the couch.

"Great news" she said "So I just got a call back for the interview"

"You went to an interview?" asked James.

"Yes, on Tuesday, I told you that" replied Alicia.

"Sorry my mind was preoccupied"

"So, the managing director phoned and we were talking about work and time and how to manage people, then we started talking about the show and he was very impressed with how you managed Phoenix's death, he loved the whole influenza conspiracy thing by the way and one thing lead to another and now I have the job"

"Great" said James "When do you start"

'Don't you want to know where I am going to work" asked Alicia

"I just assumed that it is going to be here. You never apply anywhere else"

"It's time for me to go on adventures, broaden my horizons. See the world" Alicia paused for a moment "The job is in Bloemfontein."

James snorted "You consider Bloemfontein to be an adventure"

"What would you know about Bloemfontein. Have you ever been there?"

"I've done Bloemfontein's top-rated activity – I've ridden though it and then I've forgotten to stop" said James derisively.

"It's going to be my home now, so you better learn to love it" said Alicia defiantly

"I wish you all the best, big sister but I hope I never learn to love Bloemfontein. I reserve all my love for objects worthy of my thoughts"

"You know they have a hill in Bloemfontein – Kyle told me – it's not all flat. That's just anti-Bloem propaganda"

"I've got work to do. You know that Paul came into my office today and went on a rant for half an hour about how annoyed he feels whenever he sees Vanessa's face" said James changing tracks. "I didn't sign up for this, if I wanted to work with real people, I would have studied human resources"

"What's there not to love about Vanessa, everybody loves Vanessa."

"He seems to think that she has gotten haughty now that every second scene features her. He wants more screen time, he says that she is stealing it from him"

"Has she taken the script and scratched out Ferne's name on the left side and put in Annabelle's name in it's place?" said Alicia in an even tone "How could she be stealing screen time from him?"

"He wanted to do the scene where Annabelle is leading the children's army"

"Why would Ferne' lead the children's army. Ferne' is not the main character, the show is not about Ferne'" said Alicia.

"He says that Annabelle's character is boring. Way too perfect, which means that nobody can relate to her. He says that I am too cowardly to give her a weakness because I don't want to offend the feminist. He called me a traitor"

'I didn't know that we are in a war" said Alicia.

"Maybe he has a point" said James

"What about Phoenix. Phoenix didn't have much in the way of weaknesses" countered Alicia.

"Phoenix has a big weakness, Phoenix is dead"

Annabelle adored the two little girls who had taken to following Phoenix around. The elder one wrote letters covered in hearts and flowers and left it on Phoenix's doorstep, while the younger would hide in the rosebush outside Phoenix's house. Every morning when Phoenix and Annabelle would leave for their respective work, she would jump out and scream "They kissed, they kissed" so that the whole street could hear.

Phoenix would good naturedly laugh at the little girl's antics and then knowingly tip his hat at all the neighbours who walked past. "Just wait till she gets older" he said.

Annabelle later heard that the two girls had both died in the same plague that killed Phoenix. It somehow felt appropriate that they would die at the same time as the man they so adored. But it left the question, why didn't she die.

'Ah" said the voice of Madame Green in her head. "What we think will kill us seldom does. We keep on living despite the hardships we go through. Some might say that it's a design failure, a fatal flaw, except of course it isn't fatal."

"But the girls, Madame, why did they die? They did nothing wrong and they weren't connected to him – not really."

"Maybe it was just co-incidence. You know that child mortality is something atrocious in Zilby, not that you follow the stats. I will have to invite Ferne' over if I want to talk serious demographics" said Madame Green.

"Do you think that he somehow made them sick" asked Annabelle.

"Well the Mamlish would like you to think that, but you said on multiple occasions that you think that Phoenix was murdered by poison" answered Madame Green. "Sometimes I suspect that you think to yourself that the Mamlish are a legitimate government and therefore they have the right to execute their political enemies."

"I have to take them seriously. And see them as an organised whole" said Annabelle. "If I don't then the deaths of all those soldiers on the ships will be blood on my hands."

"But if you didn't kill them, the blood of Agatha and Hettie would have been on your hands too" said Madame Green.

"They're dead anyway" said Annabelle. "I killed the sailors on the ship. But that was too little too late to prevent the death of Agatha and Hettie."

"There are hundreds like them, they are being born right now, at every increasing rate, the women are having so many children because they only see death."

'You've never had a child" said Annabelle to the Madame

"I watched Phoenix grow up like a mother. I gave him every advantage. He lost his mother and so I took her place" Madame Green paused. "But not really – I mean he never sat in this chair having hearts to hearts like I am doing with you now."

"I don't understand" Annabelle left. She didn't so much as turn around to take a last look as she walked out of the house. Her abruptness had a chilling effect on the room's atmosphere.

Madame Green fell back on her chair and then spoke out load to no-one in particular. Annabelle is losing focus. I thought that she was a gift that fell out of the blue, but now I see that hard work and preparation is still the better plan."

"It needs to be done."

"People who say they are lonely are more likely to be lonely" James read online. James liked to stay on top of the latest research; he wondered how he could somehow work this into the storyline. Ever since Paul had come into his office, he searched desperately through everything that he had written so that he could say to Paul "See here, Annabelle suffers too."

Annabelle was self-sufficient, he had received dozens of emails from viewers praising him for making her self-sufficient. But he didn't want to make her lonely. It was too stereotypical an emotional problem.

James sneezed, this was the worst part of spring, sure there were flowers, and it was all very nice to look at, but the pollen counts and all the pesticides that they used in the fields to preserve the crop. There was a good reason why James didn't smoke, and it wasn't just the concern that he would get cancer one day. He sneezed again.

Phoenix had died of the flu, he wondered how Phoenix would have been in his last hours, how would have he had written it. Would he have been strong? Would he have had the ability to fight on? Or would have struggled for breadth and been unable to even stand up?

What if Annabelle had to fight the same demons that had killed Phoenix, but instead of dying off stage we saw her valiantly struggling on. She would have to run and jump, all the while struggling to breathe. It could even be like a Victorian musical where the heroine sang heartful songs while dying from TB. She wouldn't die of course, unless Vanessa died, in which case he would say that the show is cursed.

James giggled as he imagined himself running down a dark alley as investigative journalist trotted after him in heels.

"But Mr Mitchell didn't you realise that when you decided to film a goat sacrifice you would be in fact calling on the dark lord himself"

"I am a Christian, Madame, I do not make sacrifices to the devil. It is all co-incidence, ask a mathematician to explain it to you if you do not understand" the imaginary version of himself answered in reply.

"But Mr Mitchell didn't your conscious warn you, that having a goat sacrifice on the show might push up the ratings in the short-term, but would eventually it would turn the SPCA against you."

"Search the scriptures from beginning to end, miss, you will not find a single verse that says "False gods cannot harm you unless you worship them with goats, goats makes these gods very effective" he would say and try to avoid any mention of the SPCA again. "I did not kill those people"

"Nobody is accusing you of killing anyone. We are accusing you of bringing down a curse on people. It is a quite different crime with different punishments. Murder gets you life in prison, where as witchcraft results in being burnt at the stake"

Annabelle's asthma pump found a place on her utility belt. The camera zoomed into it, before coming up and showing her face in the clear daylight. Asthma, as James had explained to Vanessa is linked to pollen, exercise, stress and strong emotions, Annabelle needed to reach for it any time that Vanessa thought that she might be exposed to them.

The only flowers in the futuristic world that James had created were proteas. Proteas produce a ton of pollen but James did not know whether or not Annabelle or for that matter the international audience would know that.

The exercise on the other hand would be a problem. Vanessa had to train four hours a day to maintain a figure that was appropriate for the part. In the series Annabelle was constantly running, jumping and fighting. She did none of this without gusto. Now she had to hunch over and pretend that she can't do it. Vanessa shook her head.

They started shooting the scene had Janice; Annabelle's grandmother come up to her. "It's been six months today since Phoenix's death"

"It is hard to believe, back then we were still under the thumb of the Lesser Lord George" said Annabelle.

"Nothing will bring that boy back to you, but when I see your face and see the way that you fight for a cause that was near and dear to him, I can't help but think that he would be proud, so proud that the things that he loves comes together in such a powerful package."

The old lady came up to Annabelle, the top of her white air reaching the bottom of Annabelle's shoulder pads. "I passed this in the terrarium this morning and it remained me of you"

She held up a protea to Annabelle's nose.

"Stop!" screamed James "Vanessa you've done a terrible job, Annabelle has got Asthma. She can't breathe whenever she is stressed, whenever she experiences strong emotion, whenever she encounters pollen. What is that in your hand! The flower your grandmother gave you after talking about your boyfriend's death. I don't know how to lampshade this any harder!"

There was silence for a few moments while Vanessa and James stared each other in the eyes.

"Let's try this again, from the top" He paused and then very deliberately turned to the actor who played Janice. "Good job."

Janice, Annabelle's grandmother came up to her. "It's been six months today since Phoenix's death"

Annabelle put her hand on her hip and fiddled with the asthma pump.

"It's hard to believe, back then" gasp "We were all" gasp "under the thumb of the Lesser Lord George" Annabelle said the name the Lesser Lord George really fast.

"Nothing will bring back that boy to you, but when I see your face and see the way that you fight for a cause that was near and dear to him. can't help but think that he would be proud, so proud that the things that he loved comes together in such a powerful package."

The old lady seemed much taller now that Annabelle had bent her knees and was bent over panting. ."I passed this in the terrarium this morning and it remained me of you"

She tried to hold the flower up to Annabelle's nose, but Annabelle violently pushed her over and grabbed the inhaler to shove it down her throat.

"That the spirit Vanessa" James screamed. "I knew you had it in you."

"The show sucks, it really sucks" screamed Gareth at the top of his lungs as one of Elizabeth's friends hit record on her phone "I can't believe they ruined it, social justice warriors, snowflake millennials they ruin everything."

"I'm not a millennial, dad" replied Elizabeth "You are! And you are the ones who has a heart attack every time that someone tries to show you a different point of view, that makes you a snowflake not me!"

"It was about talent, back in the day before all of this political correctness crap. Now it is all about views. Seeing as you are all about diversity, what do the boys in your class think about this" said Gareth.

"They hate her" admitted Elizabeth.

"You see!" yelled her father "I'm not the only one with the right opinion"

"Except for Gary" added Elizabeth "He loves her, can't stop talking about how great she is"

"Probable gay" said Gareth loudly under his breath.

"He's my boyfriend!" said Sharon from behind the celphone.

"Only says that to get inside your pants" said Gareth with a knowing snort.

"He took a chastity vow!" answered Sharon.

The top comment under the video was.

"GARY IS GAY"